Christie Redfern's Troubles Part 22

"Well, you are to stay with little Harry to-night, at any rate, and I hope I may find him much better in the morning," said the doctor.

He gave some further directions about the child's drink and medicine, and went away. Christie heard him in the pa.s.sage urging upon Mrs Lee the necessity of keeping herself quiet and taking rest. The child, he a.s.sured her, was in no danger; but he would not answer for the consequences to herself should she suffer her over-anxiety to bring on a return of the illness from which she had only just recovered. He did not leave her till he saw her resting on the sofa in her own room; and Christie did not see her again till the house had become quiet for the night. Mrs Greenly had paid one brief visit to the sick-room, and then, weary with the exertions of the week, betook herself to the attic-nursery to rest. Christie was left quite alone but her solitary musings were not so sad as they had been many a time. And sitting there in the dim light of the night-lamp, she said to herself, "I can never, never have such sad thoughts again."

CHAPTER TEN.

THE SHADOW OF DEATH.

It was past midnight when Mrs Lee entered the nursery again. Little Harry was on the bed, and his weary nurse was preparing to lie down beside him.

"He seems to be sleeping quietly," said his mother, as she bent over him, "Yes, ma'am--much more quietly than he did last night. I think he will have a good night," said Christie.

Mrs Lee seated herself on the side of the low bed, and listened to his quick, irregular breathing.

"I was beginning to hope that all the others might escape, now that Letty is so well," she said; "but if Harry gets over it I shall be glad.

It is always well that children should have these diseases while they are at home, if they must have them--poor darlings!"

She looked grave, and even sad as she spoke; but her face was not so pale, and she did not look so hopeless as she had done when the doctor was present.

"I feel quite rested and refreshed," she said, after a few moments. "I have been asleep two or three hours. You had better go up-stairs and lie down awhile, and I will stay with Harry the rest of the night. You look very tired, Christie."

"I was just going to lie down here," said Christie. "Do you think you need to sit up, ma'am? He seems sleeping so quietly, and the least movement he can make will wake me. I can keep a light burning, and call you at any moment. I do not think you need to sit up."

"I am afraid you will not rest much with him, if his least movement will wake you," said Mrs Lee, doubtfully.

"Oh, I wake and sleep again very easily," said Christie, cheerfully. "I am used to it now."

Still Mrs Lee lingered, watching the child with anxious eyes, and now and then sighing deeply Christie sent many a pitying glance towards her wondering if any trouble that she knew nothing of was added to the anxiety with which she regarded her child. She longed to be able to comfort her. Her heart was full of sympathy for her--sympathy which she did not venture to express in words. She did not even let her looks express it, but took up her Bible, that she might not seem to be watching her. Mrs Lee roused herself at last, and turning to Christie, said:

"Mrs Greenly tells me that Mr G., the famous preacher, was in town to-day. And, by the bye, you must have heard him. He preached in --- Church this morning. You were there, I suppose?"

"Yes; I was there," said Christie, with great interest. "There was a strange minister preached; but I didn't know that he was a great man.

That was the reason there was such a crowd of people, I suppose. I wondered why it was."

"You didn't like him, then? or you didn't think him a great man?" said Mrs Lee, smiling.

"Oh, yes," said she, eagerly; "I liked him. But I wasn't thinking about him as a great man; I wasn't thinking of him at all--only of what he said."

"He told you something new, then?" said Mrs Lee.

"No! Oh, no! Nothing new; nothing that I had not heard many times before. And yet it seemed to come to me as new!" she added, a strange, sweet smile pa.s.sing over her face.

"What did he say that was new to you?"

"Some things he said that I shall never forget. He was telling us of G.o.d's love to man, shown in many ways, but most and best of all in the work of redemption. It wasn't new, what he said; and yet--I don't know how it was--I seemed to see it as I never saw it before." And again the same bright smile flashed over her countenance.

"The work of redemption?" repeated Mrs Lee; and there was a questioning tone in her voice that made Christie look at her doubtfully before replying.

"Yes; you know, 'G.o.d so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him might not perish, but have eternal life.' And 'All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.' And there are many more verses in the Bible like this. One of them says, 'When there was no eye to pity, or hand to save, G.o.d's eye pitied, and His own arm brought salvation.' I'm not sure that these are the exact words, but that is the meaning of the verse."

"Brought salvation!" repeated Mrs Lee. "That means that G.o.d's people will be saved, and will go to heaven when they die?"

"Yes," said Christie, hesitatingly. "It means that; but it means something more. We don't have to wait till we die to get the good of salvation. We shall be saved from the punishment of sin when we die, but we are saved here from its power. We come to hate what we once loved, and to see beauty and worth in things that before were uninteresting to us. What was hard to do and hard to bear becomes easy for Christ's sake. Somehow or other, everything seems changed. 'Old things pa.s.s away. All things become new.'"

She paused, and letting her cheek rest on the hand that held her Bible, she gazed into the glowing embers with eyes that seemed to see pleasant things far-away. Mrs Lee looked at her with wonder for a time, and then said:

"Has all this happened to you--this change you speak about?"

A sudden flow of tears was the only reply her question received at first. But soon she raised her head, and said:

"Sometimes--now and then--I have hoped so; and to-day, when G.o.d's great love to sinners was set forth, and the way of salvation shown to be so wise, so free, so suitable, it seemed foolish and unreasonable to doubt any more. I had heard all about it many and many a time before, but the words seemed to come home to my heart to-day. It was like the sudden s.h.i.+ning out of a light in a dark place. Maybe I'll go back again to my old doubts and discontent. But I hope not; I believe not. I know He is able to keep me; and I think He will."

Mrs Lee had laid herself down by Harry, and was listening now, with her eyes shaded by her hand. She lay so long and so quietly that Christie thought she must have fallen asleep, and began softly to turn over the leaves of her Bible again; and she quite started when, in the course of half an hour, she spoke again.

"You said something about G.o.d's love in redemption. What did you mean by it? Tell me more of what the preacher said."

Christie hesitated a moment, and was at a loss what to say: "I can't mind all he said. That is, I can't mind the exact words. But he told us what a blessed thing it is for us that our salvation, from beginning to end, is G.o.d's own work, and how impossible it is that we could be saved if it depended on ourselves."

"Yes; even if one could begin one's life again. It would be all the same. We might avoid some errors and keep from falling into some mistakes; but after all, it would come to the same thing in the end, I dare say. There is no use in wis.h.i.+ng for another chance."

Mrs Lee sighed; and Christie hesitated a moment, and then said: "We can do nothing to save ourselves, ma'am, and all else that we have to do grows easy, because of the grace which G.o.d gives, and because of a knowledge of Christ's love to us. It is easy to do the will of One who loves us, and whom we love."

There was a long pause after this, which Mrs Lee broke by saying: "What was it you said about 'no eye to pity, and no arm to save'?"

"Here it is," said Christie; and she eagerly read the words from her Bible, and many more besides--a verse here and a verse there, as her own judgment or Effie's marginal marks suggested: such as, "_Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows_.

"_He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities_.

"_For when we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the unG.o.dly_.

"_For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die_.

"_But G.o.d commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us_.

"_Who shall lay anything to the charge of G.o.d's elect? It is G.o.d that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died; yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of G.o.d, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ_?"

"If we could be sure that we are among the children of G.o.d," said Mrs Lee, with a sigh. And soon after she added: "There are a great many things in the Bible that are hard to understand."

"Yes; I suppose so--I am sure of it," said Christie, gravely. "But the things most necessary for us to know and understand are easy for us; at least, with the help of the Holy Spirit they grow easy, I think. It is very plainly told us we are sinners and need a Saviour, that a Saviour has been provided, and those who come to Him He will in no wise cast out. These are the chief things; and besides these, we are a.s.sured of help and guidance and peace, all the way through to the end."

Christie spoke slowly, striving to put into as few words as possible these precious truths of the Bible.

"You seem to know a great deal about these things, and to take a pleasure in them," said Mrs Lee.

Christie shook her head. "I take pleasure in them, but I know very little. It is only lately that I have cared to learn. I am very ignorant."

Ignorant though she was, the child knew more of G.o.d's truth than her mistress; and many a word in season she spoke to her anxious heart during the long watches that they shared together in the sad times that followed that memorable day. They were words very simply and humbly spoken--rarely Christie's own. They were pa.s.sages of Scripture, or bits from the catechism, or remembered comments upon them made, in her hearing, by her father, or by Effie and her friends.